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All About Sprouts: Best Seed Sprouters & Growing Your Own

All About Sprouts: Best Seed Sprouters & Growing Your Own

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Sprouts are one of the easiest foods you can grow yourself. You can do it indoors, at any time of year, with minimal gear and no soil or garden required! They’re perfect to grow in the winter and are fantastic for urban gardeners and apartment dwellers who want something fresh. While the fun hobby of growing sprouts is so easy anyone can do it with a jar and cheesecloth, you may find a sprouter better meets your needs. For this article, we’ll teach you the basics of sprouting seeds, as well as review the best seed sprouters for home use.

All About Sprouts

Sprouts are what you get when a seed first starts to grow, generally about 4-7 days of growth. They’re sprouted in water–not soil–as the seeds have all the nutrients needed to grow the sprout. Sprouting seeds is easier to grow than microgreens because sprout require less time to grow (1 week vs 10-20 days) and microgreens must be grown in soil.

There are as many varieties of sprouts as there are edible plants, each with their own unique flavors, textures, and nutrients. You can grow vegetables like broccoli or carrots, greens like kale and spinach, or beans like mung beans or peas. You’ve probably seen (or even tried!) sprouts in your local sandwich shop, salad bar, or even at the grocery store. While you may be able to easily buy them in stores, sprouting seeds is an easy and affordable way to grow your own fresh food at home.

You may wonder what’s the point of eating sprouts–are there any benefits versus the full-grown plant or vegetable? In fact, there is. Sprouts are packed with nutrients that are often missing from the “adult” food or they provide higher quantities of important vitamins and nutrients. For example: eating a cup of broccoli provides only 1.5 mg of vitamin E, but a cup of broccoli sprouts has 7.5mg! (source).

In addition to packing tons of nutritional benefits, seed sprouts add a crunchy texture and delicious flavors to salads, sandwiches, and even stir-fry. Plus, sprouting seeds is an addictive, but healthy, hobby. If you want to try sprouting seeds for the first time, check out our easy to follow instructions to grow sprouts at home.

Selecting Sprouting Seeds

Technically any edible seed can be sprouted, but you don’t just want to pick up a back of beans and try to sprout them. Buying specially marketed sprouting seeds is the best choice. Beans and seeds sold in grocery stores for consumption are often irradiated to prevent them from sprouting in transit or on store shelves, which means you won’t be able to sprout them at home.

Sprouting seeds are specially processed and tested to be clean and free of e.coli and salmonella because the growers know that the sprouting process is different from how beans and seeds are normally cooked before consumption.

You can easily purchase sprouting seeds online at retailers like Amazon, at garden stores, and at many local health food stores. There are tons of varieties to choose from, including sprouting mixes and kits. If you’re new to sprouts, I recommend trying a sampler pack to help you figure out what types of sprouts you like best.

How to Grow Sprouts at Home

The basic steps for sprouting seeds involve soaking the seeds or beans overnight and then “watering” them each day (usually twice a day) to keep them moist. The type of sprouter you use and the kinds of seeds you want to sprout will determine the best practices.

Usually, your sprouter will come with instructions about how many seeds you can sprout at once in it. Any seeds you buy will have info about watering ratios and frequency.

Generally, if you’re using a sprouting jar for your seeds, you’ll want to use 1-2 tablespoons of seeds. There is some wiggle room for this, but ultimately the amount you use will be determined by the size of your container and the size of the sprouts. Bigger sprouts need more space to grow.

When you soak your seeds overnight, make sure to cover them completely with room temperature water. Once they’re drained, you’ll need to rinse your sprouts 1-2 times a day until they’re ready to eat.

Store your sprouts in the fridge in a container with a lid–like another jar or tupperware. Line the container with paper towels. They should stay good for a week, but obviously, they taste best fresh!

Best Seed Sprouters

These are some of the best seed sprouters and kits to help you sprout a variety of seeds in your home with ease. I recommend many of these sprouters because they make it easy to grow many varieties of sprouts at once in a compact space.

Sprout Ease The Jar Seed Sprouter

If you’re looking for an affordable and easy introduction to seed sprouting and don’t want to go the DIY route, this kit from Sprout Ease is perfect. The it comes with a glass jar and three plastic lids of various mesh sizes to allow for easy draining of your sprouting seeds.

This size allows you to sprout up to 1 quart’s worth of seedlings. Easy to use, and affordable with all the basics you need, this is a great sprouter for beginners and kids learning about growing food. If you want to be able to sprout large quantities or different types at once, you should either order a few of the Sprout Ease jars or consider getting one of the other sprouters on our list.

Pros: Affordable price Easy to use for beginners and kids Three different mesh strainer sized caps

Cons: Need multiple jars to sprout more than one variety at once Not the most stylish appearance

Victorio Deluxe 4 Tray Seed Sprouter

If you’re ready to step up your sprouting game or looking for the best seed sprouters to grow different types of sprouts, check this out. This compact sprouter from Victorio Kitchen Products comes with four seed trays, allowing you to grow for different varieties of sprouts at once. The trays feature holes in the bottom, allowing water to drain out while keeping your sprouts moist.

To use, once you’ve soaked your seeds, the trays can be stacked and water can be poured in the top. This water will flow through the layers to the reservoir in the bottom, leaving behind the right amount of moisture for your seeds. This process is a little easier than traditional sprouting in a jar.

If you’re a sprouts newbie or even a connoisseur, this is a good system to easily grow a variety of sprouts at home. You can easily create a rotating system of starting a new crop on an empty tray every two days so you can have fresh sprouts every day.

Comes with an instruction manual and a sample packet of organic alfalfa seeds. Made in the USA.

Pros: Grow up to four different types of sprouts at once Easy to water Design helps avoid seed clumping Looks good on a kitchen counter Dishwasher safe

Cons: Made of plastic (but it is BPA free) Small seeds can clog the drain holes, leading to inadequate drainage A smaller quantity of seeds can be done per tray versus jar method

Sproutman Hemp Sprout Bag

If you want to avoid plastic or jars cluttering up your kitchen counter, consider a sprouting bag. Sproutman makes this organic, chemical-free, natural hemp bag specigically for sprouting seeds. It’s one of the best seed sprouters if you’re short on space and want to grow a large quantity of sprouts. The Sprout Bag expands as your tiny sprouts grow, allowing you to grow small or large batches–whatever you need.

Hemp is naturally resistant to mold and mildew and the material allows for excellent drainage while still promoting proper airflow. To use, you soak the bag with seeds inside then hang it or lie it flat. Each day you should dip it twice to water your sprouts. Once you’ve grown the sprouts, you can continue to store them in the bag thanks to the breathable fabric. Clean the bag by boiling it in water. Easy to use, this is a natural way to sprout seeds.

If you’re a beginner, you can order the bag with a helpful chart that gives you sprouting instructions for a variety of seeds.

Tribest Freshlife Automatic Sprouter

If forgetfulness or a busy schedule often causes your seed sprouts to fail, an automatic sprouter. Think of Freshlife as the Aerogarden of seed sprouting. The unit sits on your counter top and all you have to do is fill the BPA-free barrel with water, plug it in, and the Freshlife will automatically water your seeds on a set schedule of 5 minutes of water every 25 minutes. Set and forget!

If you want variety in your sprouts, the seed tray is designed with four different reservoirs on each level, and you can add up to three levels of trays. This is perfect for big families who eat a lot of sprouts and you can stagger the growing times of the trays to make sure you always have fresh sprouts available.

Unfortunately, this amazing automatic seed sprouter is very expensive compared to manual options, so I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners. If you already buy a lot of sprouts, or find your kitchen counter is cluttered with tons of sprouting jars, the Freshlife is worth the investment to grow fresh and healthy sprouts at home easily. Plus, the automatic nature of the system takes care of any learning curve for new sprouters.

Pros: Automatically waters your sprouts Makes it easy to grow large crops Can grow four types of seeds per tray

Cons: Very expensive compared to other options 10″ wide sprouter takes up more counter space than other sprouters Have to remember to change out the water every day

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